Kurdish phonology is the sound system of theKurdish dialect continuum. This article includes the phonology of the three Kurdish languages in their respective standard descriptions. Phonological features include the distinction betweenaspirated andunaspiratedvoiceless stops, and the large phoneme inventories.[1][2]
/n,t,d/ arelaminaldenti-alveolar[n̪,t̪,d̪], while/s,z/ are dentalized laminal alveolar[s̪,z̪],[6] pronounced with the blade of the tongue very close to the back of the upper front teeth, with the tip resting behind lower front teeth.
Postvocalic/d/ islenited to an approximant[ð̞]. This is a regional feature occurring in other Iranian languages as well and called by Windfuhr the "Zagros d".[9]
Distinguishes between aspirated and unaspiratedvoiceless stops, which can be aspirated in all positions. Thus/p/ contrasts with/pʰ/,/t/ with/tʰ/,/k/ with/kʰ/, and the affricate/t͡ʃ/ with/t͡ʃʰ/.[2][8][11]
Although[ɥ] is considered an allophone of/w/, some phonologists argue that it should be considered a phoneme.[12]
Kurdish has labialized counterparts to the velar plosives, the voiceless velar fricative and the uvular stop. Thus/k/ contrasts with/kʷ/,/ɡ/ with/ɡʷ/,/x/ with/xʷ/, and/q/ with/qʷ/.[17] These labialized counterparts do not have any distinct letters ordigraph. Examples are the word"xulam" ('servant') which is pronounced as[xʷɪˈlɑːm], andqunc ('nook') is pronounced as[qʷɨnd͡ʒ].[18]
/ɣ/ is a phoneme that is almost exclusively present in words of Arabic origin. It is often replaced by/x/ in colloquial Kurdish. Thus the word"xerîb/ẍerîb" ('stranger',/ɣɛˈriːb/) may occur as either[xɛˈriːb] or[ɣɛˈriːb].[22]
/ʕ/ mostly occurs in words of Arabic origin, mostly in word-initial position.[23]
/ʔ/ is mainly present in Arabic loanwords and it affects the pronunciation of adjacent vowels. The use of the glottal stop in everyday Kurdish may be seen as an effort to highlight its Arabic source.[24]
The vowel inventory differs by language, some languages having more vowel phonemes than others. The vowels/iːʊuːɛeːoːɑː/ are the only phonemes present in all three Kurdish languages.
In Sorani,/a/ is realized as[æ], except before/w/ where it becomes mid-centralized to[ə]. For example, the wordgewra ('big') is pronounced as[ɡəwˈɾæ].[37]
/ɪ/ is realized as[ɨ] in certain environments.[26][38][39]
In some words,/ɪ/ and/u/ are realized as[ɨ]. This allophone occurs when⟨i⟩ is present in a closed syllable that ends with/m/ and in some certain words likedims ('molasses'). The wordvedixwim ('I am drinking') is thus pronounced as[vɛdɪˈxʷɨm],[38] whiledims is pronounced as[dɨms].[40]
/øː/ occurs in numerous dialects of Sorani where it is represented by wê/وێ as well as in Xwarîn, represented by⟨ö⟩. In Kurmanji, it is only present in loanwords fromTurkish, where it often merges with/oː/. The wordöks (from Turkishökse meaning 'clayish mud') is pronounced as either[øːks] or[oːks].[41]
Theglides[w],[j], and[ɥ] appear in syllable onsets immediately followed by a full vowel. All combinations except the last four are present in all three Kurdish languages.
Haig, Geoffrey; Matras, Yaron (2002),"Kurdish linguistics: a brief overview"(PDF),Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung,55 (1), Berlin: 5, archived fromthe original(PDF) on 10 October 2017, retrieved27 April 2013
Hamid, Twana Saadi (2015),The Prosodic Phonology of Central Kurdish (PhD thesis), Newcastle University,hdl:10443/3386
Rahimpour, Massoud; Dovaise, Majid Saedi (2011), "A Phonological Contrastive Analysis of Kurdish and English",International Journal of English Linguistics,1 (2): 75,doi:10.5539/IJEL.V1N2P73,S2CID30247575
Öpengin, Ergin; Haig, Geoffrey (2014), "Regional variation in Kurmanji: A preliminary classification of dialects",Kurdish Studies,2,doi:10.1163/9789004706552_005,ISSN2051-4883
Soane, Ely Banister (1922), "Notes on the Phonology of Southern Kurmanji",The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,54 (2), Cambridge University Press,doi:10.1017/S0035869X00150257,JSTOR25209880
